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Knowledge and Decisions (平装)
by Thomas Sowell
| Category:
Decision-making, Social science, Knowledge, Nonfiction |
| Market price: ¥ 278.00
MSL price:
¥ 238.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Another must-read from Thomas Sowell, this classic shows us clearly what builds or destroys society. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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F. A. Hayek (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
This is a brilliant book. Sowell illuminates how every society operates. In the process he also shows how the performance of our own society can be improved.
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Jon Jerome (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-27 00:00>
Every serious reader has his own list of the most influential books in his life. This spectacular, monumental volume is second only to "Atlas Shrugged" on mine. "Knowledge and Decisions" has focused my thinking on human social and economic behavior in a way few works before or since have, giving me a clearer outlook and new insight into how societies and economies function. Closely reasoned and meticulously argued, it still finds room for countless small gems of Sowell's ironic wit, making it entertaining as well as enlightening.
The free-market, libertarian conservative viewpoint has found such an eloquent voice in Thomas Sowell that Steve Forbes would do well to choose Sowell (a Forbes columnist) as his running mate in his next stab at the Presidency.
If you like to think, buy this book.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-27 00:00>
Economists almost never write in a way that can be understood by educated persons at large. This is a major exception, so much so that this is perhaps the best book ever written about what was wrong with the general trend of bureaucratically administered public policy in the 20th century. That public policy requires detailed information about people, businesses, and markets, information of a kind that is impossible to obtain in a free society.
Sowell is a discrete Austrian economist without the jargon. He made accessible to all the fundamental insight that a market economy is a self-organizing phenomenon that economizes on the need for articulated knowledge. He did this some years before the Santa Fe Institute got off the ground.
My only objection is that the 1980 edition contained many errors that should have been caught by a proofreader. Here's hoping the 1996 reprint cleaned these up. An outright second edition would be even more welcome, as there is always water flowing under the bridge that Sowell has built.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-27 00:00>
This book changed the way I think and the way I view the world. Though ostensibly about political economics, it is essentially an attempt at explaining many if not most systemic social phenomena with "economic" laws. Much of the price-to-knowledge theory is well borne out in today's Information age, before our very eyes.
The weakness is in the book's form: often meandering from topic to topic and then back again, the reader is never quite sure where Sowell's going with an idea, and indeed an idea introduced one place gets hashed out better many pages later. So, a difficult read, but a highly profitable one!
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Michael (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-27 00:00>
Most of us act politically and in our society in the ways we "feel" are right. We rely on our preconceptions and on limited information - often self-selected. We then conclude that our ideas are correct, compassionate and practical, and that those who disagree are ignorant. Because political and societal changes are gradual and complex, we don't clearly see where our choices are taking us, or where alternative courses would lead. Instead, we see those things that go well as affirmations of our ideas, an those that go badly as evidence of others' folly. Affirmed in our prejudices, we continue without really understanding what makes our society freer, richer and more just, and what invites corruption, tyranny and decay.
Thomas Sowell carefully sorts the tangle of societal complexities without oversimplifying them. With inescapable logic he shows us the good and bad consequences of our actions, in politics, the economy and the law, and where the roads not taken lead.
Sowell does not engage in "but if,...then" fantasies, either. He backs up his reasoning with meticulous scholarship. Every point is supported with real-world example after example, across cultures and through the centuries -- proving that his conclusions are universal human truths.
Knowledge and Decisions is clearly and succinctly written. Sowell reaches his readers and brings them with him. Read this book and you will be rewarded with the ability to see politics, the economy and the law as they really are, and to better reason for yourself what builds, and what destroys. |
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Dave Magee (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-27 00:00>
Seen through the clarity of Sowell's empirical analyses, the modern liberal politician and her/his totalitarian leaning institutions are both rendered nakedly self-serving. The rise of the unaccountable, omnipotent government agency and the willingness of the Supreme Court to make policy rather than protect the Constitution degrade the principles of democratic representation in America. Individual freedom is reduced as established authorities succeed in expanding their grip on the free market process in economic, political and social venues. Sowell believes in the efficiency of private self interest rather than the articulated, unverifiable product of "intellectuals" to deliver us into a future where individual liberty is paramount. I agree. Please read this book. |
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Lemas Mitchell (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-27 00:00>
I have read about 12 of Thomas Sowell's books now, give or take. They do tend to be over-wrought with detail, but in this case it may be that he really did need as many pages as he used to say what he did and could have used more by filling in specific examples.
Kudos to Sowell for using the very accurate idea of *social behavior* as a basis for explaining intergroup difference (rather than something so tenuous as IQ), and the separation of the actions of specific agencies from "society." Most writers do not bother to clearly delimit their operational terms and working notions. Also particularly clever was his observation of how institutions work as a matter of *self-interest* and create problems because it is in their best interest to have these problems.
The book must be read LINE by LINE. When he uses some of his very abstract statements to characterize a social process it is often NOT filled in with details. A theme that appears in many of his books is: "If it has happened once, it will happen again independent of settings." While you go through and read some of his statments, you will have to think back through your experiences of life and see if you have seen the same situation. And THAT is what makes this book take such a long time to read - expect it to take a month if read properly.
The index is excellent and I found it particularly useful for referencing subjects like black IQ research and things like that. Well researched if nothing else, and it goes a LONG way in explaining current situations by extrapolations of things in the book itself.
Perhaps it could have been made just a bit easier to read. Again: this is NOT light reading, and while it is chock full of information, it is WAY over the heads of most people.
This book is *required reading* for young black Americans. If paid careful attention to, it will do great things to break some of the bad habits that have infected us for a long time now. Really, it is a good book for any people who are looking for concrete reasons for group differences. And maybe in the case of the readers who would be the greatest beneficiaries of it (black Americans, from my view), it would undo some of the damage caused to young Blacks by Black Studies departments across the nations. |
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1 Total 1 pages 7 items |
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